How To Regrow Hair Naturally & Stop Hair Loss [Alopecia Areata]

When you look in the mirror, do you only see a need to regrow hair? If so, you may feel like you’re all alone. The truth is that there are millions of people around the world who are suffering from hair loss and looking for a way to regrow their hair. People lose their hair for many reasons and in many different ways. Some go completely bald, while others simply experience thinning. Some lose hair as they age, while others lose hair as a result of illness, stress, or genetics.

As hopeless as your situation may feel, there are a number of effective ways to regrow hair naturally. There are products on the market and home remedies that you can mix up yourself.  If you start by figuring out what has caused you to lose your hair, you can quickly figure out which is the best way for you to regrow it and begin your journey back to a full head of hair.

Why Do You Need to Regrow Hair?

Losing your hair has a medical term: Alopecia. It affects men more than women, but women can struggle with hair loss too – and especially with hair that grows thinner than it once did.

There are many reasons why you may be going through hair loss. Some of the reasons why people need to regrow hair include:

  • Physical stress – people who undergo surgery, an illness, or trauma of any kind can lose their hair temporarily.
  • Pregnancy – when women are expecting a baby, their hormone levels can shift and lead to hair loss. This is especially true after giving birth.
  • Too much Vitamin A – people who take vitamin A supplements often lose hair.
  • Not enough protein in your diet – Hair growth depends on having the right balance of nutrients in your diet, and especially protein. If you are not getting enough protein, after about two months your hair will stop growing.
  • Genetics – male pattern baldness is caused by genes and hormones. It causes hair to recede at the temples. There is also a female version called female-pattern hair loss. It causes a woman’s part to get wider and their hair to get thinner.
  • Hormonal changes – sometimes people lose hair because they are on birth control pills or going through menopause.
  • Emotional Stress – just as physical trauma can make you lose hair, so can emotional traumas such as divorce or the death of a loved one.
  • Anemia – anemia is a medical condition caused by low iron in the blood. It can lead to hair loss.
  • Thyroid problems – if your thyroid is not working well it can have an impact on your ability to grow hair.
  • Big weight loss – people who lose a lot of weight at once can find that they’ve also lost a lot of hair. It is because the weight loss is a type of stress to the body – even though it may be a healthy thing overall.
  • Chemotherapy –drugs that kill cancer cells do so by targeting cells that divide and grow quickly. Unfortunately, that includes hair cells.
  • Medications – some medicines may leave you needing to regrow hair. These include some blood thinners, steroids and antidepressants.
  • Overstyling – it’s hard to accept that our efforts to make ourselves more beautiful may be causing hair to fall out, but it’s true. Chemicals, heat and other styling practices can affect the hair root, making it hard to regrow hair.
  • Aging – as we get older, our hair naturally gets thinner.

When your hair is falling out or thinning it can feel like you’ve lost a part of your personality or identity. The good news is that the situation does not have to be permanent. There are plenty of options available to help you regrow hair.

Understanding How Your Hair Grows

Not everybody who notices hairs in their hair brush or sink needs to worry about regrowing their hair. Most people lose between 50 to 100 hairs each day, and it does not cause a problem. There is usually a replacement hair that will come after a hair is lost.

When hair grows, it comes from a tiny area in the skin called a hair follicle. The root of this area is made of protein cells and it is fed by blood vessels in the scalp. As the follicle is fed it builds hair, pushing it up through the skin. By the time the hair is long enough to show through the skin, it is actually dead, but the part at the root keeps growing. That’s how hair grows long.

Interesting facts about hair:

  • Most people have about 100,000 hair follicles on their scalp.
  • You don’t develop more follicles as you age. What you’re born with is all you will ever have.
  • Male hair grows faster than female hair.
  • Most people who lose hair or who have thinning hair can regrow hair with the right products or treatments.

How to Regrow Hair Naturally

There are a lot of answers available for how to address hair loss, but not all of them are gone ones. The idea of going through surgery or hair plugs, or taking prescription medications, rightly gives a lot of people pause. Though these choices may work, they can be very costly, and some can be painful or have adverse side effects. The good news is that there are many natural ways to regrow hair, including using special scalp massage, oils and shampoos, and changing your diet. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular, most effective choices.

Scalp Massage

One of the things that helps our hair to grow it the circulation of blood around the root of our hair follicles. Blood circulation is very important, and a good scalp massage can help — and it feels great too!

When your blood circulates to your scalp during a massage, it carries iron, vitamin A, protein, omega-3s, and other important nutrients with it.  Plus it brings oxygen, which helps hair to grow.

Scalp massage is something you can do for yourself every day. All you have to do is use your fingertips and gently rub the area where you want to regrow hair, using a circular motion. If you want to give your massage a boost, use a nourishing oil that feeds and follicle while helping your fingers to glide across your scalp. Just a few minutes every day can make a big difference.

Here are the steps to scalp massage that helps regrow hair:

  1. Make sure you’re comfortable. It’s best to sit down, because you want to be able to keep your balance and concentrate on what you’re doing.
  2. Place your fingers on your scalp, alternating the fingers from your left hand with the fingers from your right hand.
  3. Push down lightly with each of your fingers, one at a time, moving them in a very small circle. The pressure only needs to last for a second or two.
  4. Keep using pressure and releasing, moving from the finger that is closest to your forehead back towards your neck.
  5. Relocate your hands around different areas of your scalp until you’ve covered your entire head.
  6. After you’ve done one round of pressure, put some nourishing oils on your fingertips and repeat the process. Reapply the oil as needed.
  7. Brush your hair well. If you use a scalp massaging brush it will help to distribute the oil and add more stimulation.

Tip: If you set a time or occasion to give yourself a daily scalp massage to help regrow your hair, it will quickly become habit. Doing it right before you step into the shower each morning is a good idea, or you can give yourself a scalp massage each night before bed. It may even help you fall asleep!

Natural Products that Regrow Hair

People have struggled with hair loss since the beginning of time, and over the years they have found some of the best ways to regrow hair right in their kitchen cupboard. Home remedies get their reputation for one simple reason: they work! Here are some of our favorite easy and effective natural products for regrowing hair:

  • Onion juice – It’s hard to think about putting something with as strong a smell as onion juice into your hair. But onion juice has a ton of Sulphur, and Sulphur helps our tissues make collagen. Collagen is essential when you want to regrow hair. All you need to do is take an onion and cut out a few slices. You can extract the juice in a few different ways: try mashing it or grating it in a mini food processor, or use a mortar and pestle. Once you get a couple of tablespoons of the juice, put it on your scalp and leave it there for about 15 minutes. Then you can wash it off with shampoo. (You might want to wash twice to get rid of the smell!)
  • Coconut milk – Fresh coconut milk is one of nature’s most nutritious substances. It contains iron, potassium and numerous essential fatty acids. Put it directly on your scalp and then leave it on for four or five hours. Do this a couple of times per week.
  • Apple cider vinegar – This household staple has been identified as a miracle cure for so many different health problems that it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it helps to regrow hair too. It answers your thinning or lost hair problems by restoring your scalp’s pH balance. This boosts hair growth. Don’t use apple cider vinegar directly on your scalp. Instead, dilute it by mixing about 1/3 of a cup to 4 cups of water then using it as a rinse after you’ve washed your hair.
  • Egg – Eggs are loaded with protein. They also contain other important nutrients, including zinc and iron. All of these are important elements to regrow hair. To make special hair conditioner from egg, take one egg white and mix it with a teaspoon of olive oil or coconut oil, then add some honey. Apply this to your scalp for 20 minutes, then rinse off and shampoo.
  • Green Tea – Green tea is a well known antioxidant that can boost hair growth and help regrow thinning hair. You can use used tea bags to make a batch of tea to apply to your scalp. Let the tea sit for at least one hour, then rinse off with cool water.
  • Castor Oil – Castor oil is a product that we all remember from when we were young. Though you may associate it with curing stomach problems, it is also a well known answer for the problem of thinning hair. Castor oil comes from a plant called a Ricinius Communis and it contains a special amino acid called Ricinoleic Acid. It has fatty acids that sink deep into the hair follicle and deliver nutrients that regrow hair. It also can stop hair loss and repair split ends. The best way to use castor oil to regrow hair is to mix a few tablespoons with a few drops of peppermint oil, shake it up and then apply to the scalp. Leave it on for 20 minutes and then shampoo it out. Do this twice a week. You can also use castor oil on eyebrows and eyelashes if they are thinning
  • Coconut oil – Because it has a lot of protein and other nutrients, many people wonder if coconut oil is good to apply it to the scalp. Though it is a very good treatment for people who want to make fine hair thicker and shinier, coconut oil can actually cause hair loss when applied directly to the scalp. Still, coconut oil has vital nutrients that can to regrow hair. It’s best to mix it with other products like honey or castor oil instead of applying it directly. Also, remember that coconut oil’s nutrients are an important addition to your diet. It is loaded with antioxidants and the fatty acids that your body needs to boost hair growth.
  • Aloe Vera – Aloe Vera is an attractive green plant that is found growing in hot, dry climates. The gel that is found in its leaves has long been known for its many medicinal purposes. It contains a number of amino acids and enzymes, and these are also a great benefit for those who want to regrow hair. Aloe can repair damaged cells on the scalp, improving the health of follicles so that hair can grow from them again. Its anti-inflammatory properties, which are well known for treating burns, also mean that it helps relieve scalp irritation that can lead to hair loss. Aloe Vera is high in vitamins, mineral and protein, all of which nourish hair follicles. The best way to use aloe to regrow hair is to mix a cup of it with 2 tablespoons of castor oil. Mix them together and apply to your scalp, then wrap your head with a shower cap or towel and sleep with the mixture on. Shampoo out in the morning. Do this twice a week. You can also try mixing about 5 tablespoons of aloe with 2 tablespoons of honey and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and using it as a conditioner for about half an hour.

Other Products to Regrow Hair

There are a few commercially available products that are sold to help people regrow hair. The most popular of these are Rogaine, Propecia, and Nioxin, and Keranique.

  • Rogaine – Rogaine is also known as Minoxidil. It can help to stop hair loss, and may even be able to regrow hair, but it has some negative side effects and problems. It has to be applied two times per day, which is time consuming. The product is also very expensive, and using it twice a day adds up quickly. Minoxidil can also cause hair growth where you don’t want it, like on your face if it drips down from your scalp. It can also irritate your skin.
  • Propecia – Propecia is a prescription drug that can regrow hair. It is usually prescribed at a low dose for men. It can also cause a loss of sexual function and a loss of interest in sex, especially in younger men. It has also been linked to depression.
  • Nioxin – Nioxin is a product that is supposed to stop hair loss, but there are some who say it can help regrow hair too. It cleans the hair and provides nutrients to the hair follicle, while blocking a substance called DHT, or Dihydrotestosterone, which causes male and female pattern hair loss. It is most helpful for people who start losing their hair at a younger age, as it slows the process of hair loss while helping to regrow hair.
  • Keranique – Keranique is a hair regrowth system that is marketed to women. It is sold in systems that can be expensive. Its main active ingredient is Minoxidil. Keranique is 2% Minoxidil, which is the same as Rogaine, so it may be less expensive for women to buy Rogaine instead.